Numair's Bad Day
by Phoenix Fanatic
Summary: Numair thinks he has a bad day, until Daine teaches him the true meaning of having a bad day.
1. Bad Day

A/N- I'm feeling….mellow.

Disclaimer- None of the characters are mine.

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The harsh rain falling steadily outside the palace windows was doing nothing for Numair's mood. Nothing at all.

Just that very day a page had knocked over one of his most precious experiments, the king had ordered a full report on 'how to increase the amount of storage space in the barracks', and he had missed his lunch. Also, he had stepped too close to Cloud, and the mare had bit him extremely hard. And now it was raining.

He slicked a hand over his hair, exhaling softly. Today was defiantly _not _his day.

A soft knock at the door would have gone unnoticed, until it became louder. Numair snapped out of his phase.

"Come in," he called.

In walked a young female, a fourteen-year-old to be more precise. Her commonly-used breeches were worn from hard work, but they did not diminish her appearance. Her soft brown curls fell softly to her shoulders.

"Numair, what have you been doing, I didn't see you at dinner-_Numair?_" she asked, coming into his quarters.

"What happened?" she called over to him. He was sitting in a chair, staring out the window, about three yards away from her. He turned in his chair to face her.

"What do you mean what happened?"

She looked at him in a peculiar way.

"Have you been…alive today? Open your eyes! Look at yourself! Look at your room!"

He did as he was told. His outfit, consisting of a tunic and breeches, was covered in stains, rips and wrinkles. His hair was uncombed and not tied back. He figured he must look like a beast.

His room was no better. The bed wasn't made, and random items were strewed across the room, none of them in the right places. Daine went around the room, trying to neaten up.

"So," she asked, "why are you…un-Numairish?"

"Un-Numairish? Interesting choice of words, magelet. If you simply _have _to know, then listen." He proceeded to tell her the events of the day.

When he had finally finished, Daine sighed.

"You, Mr. Salmalín, are self-pitying yourself. Do you think you've really had a bad day? _Open your eyes. _All around you, people in the Lower City are starving. While you are missing lunch, some people are missing every meal, every day. Those people have it _much _worse than you do, no matter _how _many times you get bit by Cloud.

"The things you have will all go away, or come back, in the case of the knocked-over experiment. While you are wondering on what you are going to wear, some people wonder if they'll ever have more than one rag to wear. You're a black-robe mage, but yet you are incredibly dumb."

Numair stared at Daine.

Daine stared at Numair.

"Where did _that_ come from?" he asked.

Then the full effects of the speech came in on him.

"Did you just call me _dumb?_"

Daine threw down the towel she was holding.

"Numair! You are the most _oblivious _person I have _ever _met! You refuse to believe that someone could be worse off than you!"

He blinked, than retaliated with,

"I do not!"

"Come with me, Numair. Hurry up," she called over her shoulder, quickly leaving his rooms.

"Where are we going?"

She didn't answer.

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A/N- I'm either going to delete or continue this. Please tell me which one. Hopefully it will be the latter.


	2. Good Day

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it.

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"Daine!" Numair called, quickly getting more and more frustrated than he already was. He was jogging silently through the halls, trying to catch up with his student. Only once did she stop in her rooms, but Numair did not notice if she took anything with her. She continued along the halls.

She led him into the stables. Thinking Daine just wanted to show him a horse giving birth or something, Numair slowed to a walk.

"Hurry up!" she called back over her shoulder when she realized Numair was only walking. "The faster we get there, the less you'll complain!"

When both teacher and student were in the stables, Daine quietly called,

"Stefan! Wake up!"

A rustle was heard over by a haystack, and what Numair thought was a pile of rags actually turned out to be a human, Stefan the hostler.

"Aye? What do ya wan'?"

"Get us out of the palace gates as quietly as possible, as soon as you can!"

He gave her a strange look, sighed, and agreed. He slung on his cloak, saddled his mare, and went to the palace gates. Daine went over to the gate and opened it.

Numair had been standing silently through this whole exchange, but when Daine told Stefan to get them out of the palace, Numair was starting to get worried. He didn't say any thing though, seeing as how his student would stop at nothing to do whatever she was doing.

"Are we…going out in the rain?" he asked.

She, once again, did not answer.

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"So why can't we just walk through the gates?" Numair asked. "And are we going out in the rain? Please say no."

"No."

"Do you mean no as in 'no we are not going out in the rain' or no as in 'no I won't say no"?"

"As in 'no I won't say no,'"

"Oh"

Silence followed, until broken by Stefan coming back.

"Thev agreed, but thay say it'll nay happen again."

"Thank you, I won't forget that. I would've messed that up, sweet-talking to the guards," Daine told him.

More silence.

"Why can't we go through the other gates?"

"All of the other gates are _closed _already, and now they've agreed to stay open for us to go in and out of the city. We should only be an hour, and an hour they'll stay open.

"_We're going out in the rain?_" Numair asked, petrified.

"Yes, live with it."

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Numair's day was quickly progessing from bad to worse. Now his insane student was leading him into Corus, for no apparent reason.

The guards had told them that they would close the gates on an hour, and no longer. They agreed.

The rain itself was dropping harder and faster. Numair had never seen Daine or himself this wet before.

They were walking, Numair not having enough sense to bring a horse, or even a cloak for that matter. Daine herself was happily humming to herself.

"So?" he asked, practically yelling over the steady rain.

"So?" she yelled back.

"Where are we going?"

"I've said it before and I'll say it again: _Open your eyes._"

Numair was pretty sure his eyes were open. Yes they were. When he was about to tell Daine so, she jumped in front of him, trying to stare him in the eyes, but seeing as how he was head and shoulders taller, the feat was impossible.

"No! Not physically open your eyes open your eyes as in _think and look_."

He looked around. There travels had taken them into the Lower City, seeing as how taverns and inns were abundant.

"Look down," she whispered. Although Numair couldn't hear her, for some reason he knew exactly what she said.

He looked down. His feet. Interesting. He was in the Lower City, to look at his feet.

Then he looked in the darkened alleyways. Eyes met his.

He jumped back. He continued looking however, and just one yard away a boy, much younger than Daine, was holding out a bowl, filled with water. His eyes were shallow, and his skin was covered in some sort of disease. Numair wouldn't have called his clothes even rags.

Daine dug in her pockets, and produced a small bag, presumably of coins. He was right, and Daine dropped a copper into his bowl. He looked up at her, and hastily ran away.

"Let's go," Numair said, still shaken at what he had seen.

"It will get worse."

As they walked deeper into the Lower City, more and more shivers crept up Numair's spine, and none of them from the rain.

That night Numair had seen the worst of the worst. Children without parents, clothes or food. One meal could mean a life. Rats and other animals crawled through their living spaces. Some atrocities he could not even begin to imagine or describe.

Through it all, Daine was giving out a copper to each person she passed, which was not that many, seeing as how many were in the alleys or unconscious.

"Numair!" she called. He was a bit farther behind her. "We have to turn back now, if you want to sleep in the palace tonight!"

He caught up with her. "No."

"I have enough money to cover the fare off an inn, should we-,"

"No," he said. "The only way to truly understand something is to live through it."

He walked over to the side a tavern. He groaned and lied down.

"G'night."

Daine smiled. Her teacher was learning. That was Numair, not really learning something until he had fully explored the topic at hand.

She went beside him, and the rain slowly lulled her to sleep.

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"How was your sleep?" Daine asked tiredly. It was morning.

"Sleep?" Numair asked. "I don't think I know what that word means, after tonight." He stiffly stood up, using the wall for support. Daine followed suit.

They both shook out their legs.

"What now?" Numair asked.

"Well, the gates should be open by the time we get back. And that's that."

They started the trek back to the palace, Numair finally learning his lesson. Yesterday had not been a bad day.

It had been a good day.

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A/N- The End. Ta da!


End file.
